E185.6 
M72 


^^ 


1862 — Emancipation  Day — 1884 

The  Negro  as  a  Political  Problem 

Oration  by  the 

Hon.   George  W* Williams 


C6e  ilibcarp 

of  t^s 

(Ilniuer0itp  of  Boxtb  Carolina 


CnDotoen  b 


Pbtlanti) 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NC  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


10001486875 


Vs 


UNIVERSITY 


O'jN^p.ATCHAPELI 


crj  c 
o>  2 


en  3 


eg 


cr>5 


TH£  UBRARY  OF  THE 

■UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


ENfDOWED  BY  THE 
..tAiC;->'-  DIALECTIC  AND  PHILANTHROPIC 
SOCIETIES 


E185, 
.W72 


1862"  EMANCIPATION  DAY-1884 


|b  I  egro  as  a  jJ0litttal ;  jroWcm. 


OR  ATIO  N 


Hon.  GEORGE  W.  WILLIAMS, 


OF  m:assa.ciittsbtts. 


A8BURY  CHURCH,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C, 


A.pril  16,  1884^  - 


From  every  hill  instinct  with  life  is  sent 
Gratitude  —  a  mental  sacrament, 
That  from  their  neck  they  loosen'd  felt  the  yol^  — 
That  the  first  link  in  slavery's  chain  was  brok 


BOSTON: 
ALFRED     MUDGE    &    SON,     PRINTERS 

No.    24    Franklin    Street. 
1884. 


0K,-A.TI01T. 


THE  NEGRO  AS  A  POLITICAL  PROBLEM. 


Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

From  the  waters  of  the  Potomac  to  the  liberty- 
crowned  dome  of  the  Capitol  of  the  nation  the  bells  of 
liberty  have  been  ringing.  The  prayer  of  gratitude  has 
been  said,  and  the  dirge  has  been  sung  at  the  tomb  of 
slavery.  The  stirring  strains  of  martial  music,  the 
swinging  battalions  of  troops,  the  citizens  in  holiday  at- 
tire, the  bright  faces  and  glad  voices  of  the  day,  proclaim 
this  an  occasion  of  more  than  ordinary  interest.  And 
now,  at  the  close  of  this  anniversary  day,  while  the 
pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  the  occasion  pass  to 
their  place  in  history,  let  us  turn  to  the  muse  of  medita- 
tion. Under  this  sacred  shelter,  whose  platform  has 
been  the  fortress  of  every  honest  and  humane  interest, 
we  may  find  all  the  conditions  friendly  to  reflection  and 
instruction.  Experience  holds  in  lifted  hand  the  flam- 
ing torch  of  knowledge,  while  our  hearts  know  full 
well  the  serious  lessons  this  day  would  teach  us.  There 
are  but  two  rational  reasons  for  going  back  into  the 
past:  one  is  where  we  can  gather  the  fadeless  flowers 


of  memory  whose  aroma  may  yet  cheer  the  present  ; 
the  other  is  where  the  bitter  herbs  of  experience  may 
act  as  a  tonic  upon  a  debiUtated  moral  effort  amid  the 
living  issues  of  the  present. 

Few,  indeed,  and  odorless  and  colorless,  are  the  flow- 
ers of  memory  that  we  as  a  race  care  to  turn  back  and 
pluck.  Passion  flowers  innumerable  we  might  find. 
But  were  we  to  turn  and  touch  them,  every  stamen  and 
petal  would  instantly  become  vocal  with  a  thousand 
tongues.  They  would  tell  the  story  of  tribes  cheated, 
villages  burned,  and  murder  perpetrated  by  the  re- 
morseless hand  of  gain.  They  would  relate  the  story 
of  the  middle  passage,  of  young  men  and  innocent 
maidens,  of  old  men  and  helpless  women,  forced  into 
the  horrible  middle  passage;  how  that  the  ocean 
became  a  voracious  sepulchre  for  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  the  hapless  victims  of  the  slave-trade,  and  will 
forever  chant  a  ceaseless  requiem  over  their  watery 
grave;  they  would  voice  the  deep  plaint  of  innocent 
womanhood  led  into  captivity,  of  broken  hearts  and 
sundered  families;  they  Would  tell  the  long  and  mourn- 
ful story  of  a  race's  wrongs  and  sufferings,  —  of  hope 
and  piety,  love  and  fear  ;  we  should  hear  how  the  race 
was  mobbed  in  the  Korth  and  sold  at  the  South  ;  how 
malice  and  vengeance,  lash,  knife,  gun,  dungeon,  fire, 
water,  and  insanity,  performed  their  hateful  work.  God 
forbid  that  we  should  undertake  so  dreadful  a  task! 
For  were  we  thus  to  review  the  past  we  would  find  lit- 
tle else  save  a  cemetery.  And  as  we  walked  abroad  we 
should  find  naught  but  graves  of  buried  rights,  hopes, 


and  loves  ;  of  manly  aspirations  foully  murdered,  and 
pious  protests  cruelly  strangled.  Over  such  terrible 
things  we  must  let  the  pall  drop.  We  must  turn  only 
to  those  facts  of  history  that  may  act  as  a  tonic  and 
inspiration  for  the  discharge  of  duties  present  and 
future. 

SLAVERY   IN  THIS    DISTRICT 

was  always  an  anomaly.  The  District  was  ceded  to 
the  United  States  government  by  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia; but  the  portion  belonging  to  Yirginia  was  sub- 
sequently ceded  back  to  that  State.  Thus  the  District 
was  ceded  entirely  by  Maryland.  This  was  consum- 
mated in  1790,  and  comprised  sixty-four  square  miles. 
In  1634  the  Colony  of  Maryland  was  formed  out  of  a 
portion  of  the  territory  belonging  to  Yirginia.  And 
Maryland,  as  the  other  Southern  Colonies,  held  slaves 
until  the  war  for  the  Union  destroyed  the  institution. 
When  Congress  appointed  a  committee  to  secure  a  per- 
manent seat  for  the  government,  instructions  were  also 
given  to  provide  a  place  where  it  should  have  authority 
also.  This  was  done;  and  in  December,  1800,  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  moved  into  the  District. 

In  the  articles  of  concession,  the  people  then  living 
in  the  District  of  Columbia  did  not  reserve  any  vested 
rights.  They  had  no  indefeasible  possessory  right  to 
slave  property.  There  was  nothing  in  the  Constitution 
justifying  the  existence  of  the  evil  at  the  very  seat  of 
the  American  government.  So,  then,  the  crime  was 
permitted  for  more  than  sixty  years. 


4 


The  following  table  exhibits  the  number  of  free  and 
bond  persons  of  color  in  the  District  for  the  space  of 
six  decades:  — 

Year.  Free  Negroes.  Slave  Negroes. 

1800 490  3,244 

1810 1,527  5,395 

1820 2,758  6,377 

1830 4,604  6,119 

1840 6,499  4,694 

1850 10,059  3,687 

1860 11,131  3,181 


In  1870  there  were  43,404  Negroes  in  the  District; 
and  in  1880,  59,596. 

That  it  was  clearly  within  the  power  of  Congress  to 
abolish  it  no  clear-headed  statesman  ever  doubted.  It 
was  tolerated  in  the  States  because  the  people  had  the 
right  to  support  it  by  State  Constitution,  or  abolish  it 
by  amendment.  But  all  government  territory  was 
under  the  immediate  and  absolute  control  of  Congress. 
If  it  were  claimed  by  Northern  apologists  that  the 
Union  could  not  have  been  formed  except  slavery  were 
allowed  in  the  Southern  States,  there  was  certainly  no 
good  excuse  for  tolerating  the  crime  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.  And  yet  for  more  than  two  generations 
slavery  built  its  altars  under  the  gegis  of  the  American 
Capitol;  the  slave-hound  bayed  his  human  victims,  and 
the  black  shadow  of  the  accursed  institution  sent  a  chill 
of  death  through  thousands  of  hearts. 


In  1800,  as  we  have  shown,  there  were  3,244  slaves  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  Ten  years  later  the  slave 
population  had  increased  to  5,3^)5,  in  1820  it  was  6,877, 
in  1830  it  was  6,119,  in  1840  it  was  4,694,  in  1850  it 
was  3,687,  and  in  1860  there  were  only  3,186.  By  these 
figures  we  see  that  at  the  end  of  six  decades  there  were 
less  slaves  in  the  District  than  there  were  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century.  The  largest  number  was  in  1820, 
6,377.  This  was  the  year  in  which  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise occasioned  so  much  excitement.  From  that 
year  down  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  Rebellion,  the 
slave  population  was  on  a  steady  decrease.  Slavery, 
existing  within  the  District  without  sanction  of  law, 
attracted  the  attention  of  anti-slavery  men  from  the  be- 
ginning. In  1827  William  Lloyd  Garrison  began  his  ca- 
reer as  an  anti-slavery  agitator  by  addressing  a  petition 
to  Congress  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia.  The  friends  of  freedom  saw  the  glaring 
inconsistency  of  allowing  the  slave-trade  to  go  on  at 
the  capital  of  a  free  republic,  and  thus  they  felt  it  to  be 
a  patriotic  duty  to  labor  for  the  abolition  of  the  evil  in 
the  District.  But  the  influence  of  the  South  was  over- 
whelming. Avarice  and  cotton  were  more  than  a  match 
for  humanity,  and  the  clank  of  the  slaves'  chains  was 
heard  in  your  streets.  Justice  tarried;  the  nation 
halted  at  its  plain,  constitutional  duty,  and  failed  to  use 
its  authority.  The  years  flew  apace,  until  at  last  even- 
handed  justice  lifted  the  bitter  chalice  of  war  to  the 
nation's  lips. 

The  shock  of  embattled  arms,  that  had  been  the  na- 


tion's  lullaby,  was  heard  in  dreadful  reverberations 
throughout  the  land.  A  year  of  an  unbroken  series  of 
Union  disasters  humbled  the  national  pride.  While 
the  nation  was  struggling  and  gasping  for  life,  while 
all  the  powers  of  Congress  were  invoked  to  tear,  one 
by  one,  the  steel  fingers  of  armed  rebellion  from  the 
nation's  throat,  in  the  slave  marts  of  the  capital  bonds- 
men, with  brows  beaded  with  the  sweat  of  unrequited 
toil,  lifted  their  pinioned  hands  to  yon  goddess  of  lib- 
erty in  vain.  The  heart  of  the  nation  was  as  hard  as 
the  brazen  images  on  the  Capitol  that  had  witnessed  for 
years  that  the  Constitution  of  this  great  Republic  was  a 
tissue  of  lies.  The  national  treasury  was  depleted;  the 
bonds  were  depreciated;  the  commerce  that  had 
whitened  all  seas  had  largely  disappeared;  the  work- 
shops were  deserted;  treason  lurked  in  the  high  places; 
the  rebel  forces  were  closing  in  upon  the  capital,  and 
the  red  fields  of  inglorious  conflict  admonished  the 
Congress  to  wipe  the  foul  stain  of  slavery  from  the 
District  of  Columbia. 

THE    MORAL    EFFECT 

of  emancipation  in  the  District  of  Columbia  was  marked. 
Anti-slavery  men  regarded  this  as  the  entering  wedge. 
It  was  the  thermometer  of  Congressional  patriotism;  it 
was  the  glorious  reward  of  patient  and  consistent  labor; 
it  was  the  answer  to  agonizing  prayers,  —  a  prophecy  of 
victory,  long  delayed,  for  the  cause  of  the  Union.  It 
became  the  theme  of  the  pulpit,  the  topic  of  editorial 


discussion,  the  inspiration  of  our  army,  the  bright  star 
of  a  nation's  hope,  suddenly  breaking  into  a  long  night 
of  distress  and  perplexity. 

From  field  and  mountain,  from  cabin  and  cot,  from 
hamlet  and  village,  the  long,  dark  stream  of  eager  freed- 
men  poured  into  the  capital  of  the  Kepublic.  In  the 
more  evil  days  they  shrank  from  the  name  of  Washing- 
ton as  from  some  deadly  reptile.  Washington  was  the 
place  where  legal  chains  were  forged  for  their  unwilling 
limbs.  Under  the  goddess  of  liberty  laws  had  been 
enacted  that  charged  every  power  of  the  government  to 
hunt  down,  at  all  hazards,  and  regardless  of  cost,  the 
fugitive  flying  for  life,  and  hurry  him  back  to  the  hell 
of  slavery.  Under  the  dome  of  that  Capitol  a  Chief 
Justice  had  declared  that  "  a  Kegro  had  no  rights  that  a 
white  is  bound  to  respect."  ISTo  l^^egro  had  been  allowed 
to  walk  under  the  shadow  of  the  Capitol  or  darken  its 
door,  except  as  nurse  or  servant  to  some  Southern  slave- 
holder. 

Horrible  indeed  were  the  thoughts  of  Washington  to 
the  poor  slaves  beyond  its  borders.  But  the  news  of 
emancipation  had  come  to  them  in  their  dark  Isle  of 
Patmos,  and  was  heard  above  the  mad  storm  of  civil 
war.  Washington  was  transformed  from  a  prison  to  a 
castle.  To  the  poor  fugitive  and  bondman  it  seemed 
now  to  be  the  only  secure  place  in  all  the  land.  It 
stood  as  a  lone  island  in  the  midst  of  an  angry  sea,  and 
every  wave  of  rebellion  seemed  anxious  to  devour  it. 
But  there  it  stood,  amid  the  boom  of  cannon,  the 
glare  of  the  lightnings  of  war,  safe  even  amidst  the 


8 

machinations  and  plottings  of  treason.  And  here  the 
curious  JS'egro  found  rest  and  security.  Under  the 
ample  folds  of  "  the  stars  and  stripes,"  the  poetry  of  all 
loyal  hearts,  thousands  of  homeless,  nameless,  and  pen- 
niless freedmen  went  and  came  through  these  streets 
without  let  or  hindrance. 


EDUCATED   NEGROES 

came  into  Washington  also.  They  felt  some  security 
now,  and  were  willing  to  serve  the  race  and  nation  as 
opportunity  offered;  and  history  should  not  fail  to  re- 
cord the  fact  that  such  Colored  men  as  Douglass, 
Langston,  Walls,  Cook,  Yashon,  Garnet,  Downing,  and 
others  exerted  a  good  influence  over  the  President  and 
the  Congress  in  the  interest  of  the  race.  The  Freed- 
men's  Bureau,  Bank,  and  barracks,  the  founding  of 
night  schools  and  hospitals,  were  brought  about  and 
managed  not  without  the  aid  of  intelligent  and  patriotic 
men  of  the  N^egro  race.  Industrious,  sober,  and  edu- 
cated leaders  of  the  race  in  the  District  have  wrought 
mightily  for  good;  and  since  the  close  of  the  war 
Washington  has  contained  a  larger  number  of  educated 
men  and  women  of  the  Negro  race  than  any  other  city 
in  the  United  States,  according  to  its  population.  The 
District  of  Columbia  is  the  home  of  Frederick  Douglass, 
and  he  will  always  remain  the  great  historic  Negro. 
Hon.  John  Mercer  Langston,  United  States  Minister  to 
Hayti,  Wm.  E.  Matthews,  the  broker,  Capt.  O.  B.  S. 
Walls,  are  among  the  foremost  men  of  Washington; 


and  the  professions  contain  noble  representatives  of  the 
race.  Howard  University  and  Wayland  Seminary, 
Sumner  High  School  and  the  seventy-five  public  schools 
for  Colored  pupils  alone,  are  equal  to  the  educational 
work  to  be  accomplished  in  the  District. 


THE    OFT^ICE-HOLDEKS 

in  Washington  are  not  all  white  persons;  there  are 
six  hundred  and  twenty  persons  of  color  in  the  de- 
partments. The  collector  of  taxes,  the  register  of 
deeds,  and  the  register  of  the  United  States  treasury 
are  able  men  of  the  ^egro  race.  But,  notwithstand- 
ing this  showing,  we  must  see  through  the  lenses 
of  experience  that  office-seeking  or  oflSce-holding 
is  not  a  healthy  employment  for  young  men.  It  is 
true  that  there  must  be  trained  men  for  these  positions 
of  government  trust  and  emolument,  but  there  are 
always  more  horses  than  stalls.  The  evil  is  in  making 
a  government  position  a  profession.  This  idea  once 
espoused,  a  young  man  is  unfitted  for  any  other  posi- 
tion in  civil  life.  When  an  office-holder  has  saved  some 
money  —  but  few  ever  do  —  he  should  resign,  and  go 
into  some  business  for  which  he  is  especially  fitted. 
We  know  that  few  officials  die,  and  none  resign.  But 
two  resignations  gave  the  ISTegro  race  a  successful 
broker  and  an  historian.  Let  others  follow  these  exam- 
ples. 


10 


SUFFRAGE    IN   THE    DISTRICT 

would  do  much  good  to  all  classes  of  people.  It  was 
tried  once,  but  purblind  prejudice  sought  its  destruc- 
tion before  the  results  were  reached. 

I^evertheless,  Alexander  Shepard  sowed  wisely,  and 
to-day  all  of  the  people  of  the  District  are  enjoying  the 
fruit  of  his  wise  labors.  If  suffrage  for  the  people  of 
this  District  is  objected  to  because  it  would  grant  a 
power  to  a  large  number  of  ignorant  people,  we  would 
say  that  such  an  objection  but  begs  the  question.  To 
advance  such  an  objection  is  to  confess  universal  man- 
hood suffrage  a  failure.  And,  furthermore,  if  suffrage 
is  witJiheld  on  account  of  ignorance  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  it  should  be  withdrawn  in  !N'ew  York  City 
for  the  same  reason.  Ignorance  in  the  majority  cannot 
dominate  an  intelligent  and  patriotic  minority :  one  of 
the  latter  can  chase  a  thousand  of  the  former,  and  two 
can  put  ten  thousand  to  flight.  With  a  competent  man 
as  governor  of  the  territory,  with  a  careful  House  of 
Delegates  and  a  Council,  reforms  could  be  inaugurated, 
abuses  corrected,  and  such  public  improvements  made 
as  to  make  Washington  the  best  regulated  and  most 
beautiful  city  in  all  the  wide  world. 

RACE    PREJUDICE 

should  be  driven  from  Washington,  suffrage  or  no  suf- 
frage. It  is  a  national  disgrace  that  nearly  every  hotel 
in  Washington  closes  its  doors  against  the  ^N'egro.     He 


11 

comes,  if  he  come  at  all,  amply  prepared  to  pay  his 
way;  and  the  fact  that  he  goes  to  a  first-class  hotel 
should  be  regarded  as  prima  facie  evidence  of  decent 
personal  appearance,  good  manners,  and  good  sense. 
Circumstances  govern  these  cases,  or  ought  to.  Hotel 
proprietors  are  more  to  be  blamed  than  the  public. 
They  are  in  a  position  to  educate  the  travelling  public; 
and,  to  cater  to  this  absolute  and  wicked  prejudice,  is  to 
retard  the  moral  growth  and  intellectual  expansion  of 
the  public.  Hotels  are  licensed  and  protected  by  law. 
The  law-makers  are  the  servants  of  the  people.  They 
intend,  in  serving  and  representing  the  people,  that 
public  inns  shall  provide  for  the  wants  of  travellers 
without  regard  to  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of 
servitude. 

A  prejudice  so  pronounced  and  hurtful  should  be 
abolished  here  at  the  capital  of  the  nation.  In  this  good 
work  Colored  men  themselves  can  accomplish  a  great 
deal.  Visitors  to  the  capital  of  the  nation  are  very  ob- 
serving. They  form  their  judgments  from  what  they 
see.  And  whom  do  they  see  first,  last,  and  all  the  time 
they  are  here?  The  idle,  shiftless,  unkempt  Negroes 
who  lounge  at  the  corners  of  the  streets,  doze  on  the 
City  Hall  steps,  and  whose  deportment  and  idle  col- 
loquy make  every  decent  person  blush  for  very  shame. 
Every  clergyman  in  the  District  ought  to  make  it  a  part 
of  his  ministry  to  teach  these  poor  people  the  use  of 
water  and  soap,  of  comb  and  brush.  Cleanliness  is 
next  to  godliness.  And  the  most  distressing  part  of 
this  public  exhibition  of  rags,  ignorance,  and  idleness  is, 


12 

our  respectable,  industrious  citizens  are  not  seen.  Here, 
then,  a  great  injustice  is  done  to  all  the  Colored  citizens 
of  the  District.  Let  us  remove  the  beam  from  our  own 
eye,  then  we  shall  see  clearly  the  mote  in  the  eye  of  a 
prejudiced  and  misguided  public. 

THE    I^EGRO   PROBLEM 

is  older  than  our  government,  l^ot  that  the  Negro  has 
thrust  himself  upon  the  attention  of  the  world,  but  the 
world  has  been  interested  in  him  for  various  and  con- 
flicting reasons.  Strangely  enough,  the  Kegro  has  ap- 
peared at  the  central  points  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
Simon,  of  Cyrene,  appeared  in  time  to  bear  the  cross  of 
the  Saviour  to  Calvary. 

In  [N'orth  Africa,  in  the  second  century  of  the  Christian 
era,  the  Negro  bore  the  brunt  of  Saracen  persecution, 
and  clung  to  the  Christian  faith.  In  fact  Africa  was  the 
battle-ground  upon  which  the  organic  life  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  was  tested;  and  from  that  point  of  history 
and  victory  it  went  forth  to  civilize  Northern  Europe. 

The  trend  of  the  great  forces  of  the  world's  best  civ- 
ilization, arms,  commerce,  letters,  religion,  and  science 
has  been  around  Africa.  Touched  but  gently  on  the 
outer  edge,  the  heart  of  the  great  continent  is  yet  a 
stranger  to  the  noblest  impulses  of  the  world's  best  life. 
For  the  most  part  only  the  defiling  hand  of  slavery  has 
been  lain  upon  her.  For  nearly  five  centuries  the  slave- 
trade,  domestic  and  foreign,  shut  out  the  light  of 
knowledge  as  storm-clouds  veil  the  brightness  of  the 
sun.     In  1562  Sir  John  Hawkins,  Sir  Lionel  Duchet, 


13 

Sir  Thomas  Lodge,  and  Sir  William  Winter  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  slave-trade  during  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth. At  first  the  queen  expressed  herself  as  horrified; 
but  later  on  encouraged  the  most  pestiferous  crime  that 
ever  cursed  the  seas.  In  1702  her  "most  gracious 
Majesty,"  Queen  Anne,  in  her  elaborate  instructions  to 
the  royal  governors  of  the  British  Colonies  in  I^orth 
America,  urged  that  the  people  "take  especial  care 
that  God  Almighty  be  devoutly  and  duly  served,"  and 
that  the  "  Koyal  African  Company,  of  England,"  "take 
especial  care  that  the  said  Province  may  have  a  con- 
stant and  suflacient  supply  of  merchantable  ;N'egroes  at 
moderate  rates."  "  The  British  Board  of  Trade  "  never 
lost  sight  of  the  slave-trade  ;  while  Parliament  never 
thought  the  question  of  trafficking  in  human  beings  be- 
neath its  notice. 

SLAVERY   IN    THE    COLONIES 

was  as  early  as  anything  connected  with  them.  Along- 
side of  the  church  and  schoolhouse  the  colonists  built 
the  slave-pen.  And  with  their  prayers  for  religious 
and  political  liberty  they  supplicated  both  the  earthly 
and  heavenly  throne  for  "  merchantable  l!^egroes."  The 
evil  grew,  as  evils  do,  until  it  was  no  less  a  serious 
question  than  the  Stainj)  Act  or  the  icrits  of  assistance. 

THE    REVOLUTION  ART   WAR 

demonstated  how  difficult  a  problem  the  N'egro  was. 
On  the  24:th  of  October,  1774,  the  Continental  Congress 


14 

passed  the  non-importation  coven-ant.  All  the  del- 
egates from  the  twelve  Colonies  signed  this  covenant, 
that  "  We  will  neither  import  nor  purchase  any  slave 
imported  after  the  first  day  of  December  next ;  after 
which  time  we  will  wholly  discontinue  the  slave-trade, 
and  will  neither  be  concerned  in  it  ourselves,  nor  will 
we  hire  our  vessels,  nor  sell  our  commodities  or  manu- 
factures to  those  who  are  concerned  in  it."  This  mag- 
nificent article,  one  of  the  two  passed  by  the  Congress 
then  in  session  at  Philadelphia,  gives  us  a  fair  idea  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  l!^egro  problem.  And  it  shows 
also,  in  the  light  of  subsequent  history,  how  false  gov- 
ernments can  be  to  themselves  and  how  cruel  to  their 
subjects. 

GEORGE   WASHIN^GTON 

was  chairman  of  a  meeting  held  at  Fairfax  Court 
House,  Ya.,  on  the  18th  of  July,  1774,  to  protest  against 
the  slave-trade.  Twenty-four  resolutions  were  pre- 
sented and  unanimously  adopted;  three  of  the  resolu- 
tions were  directly  against  the  slave-trade. 

"  17.  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  meet- 
ing, that,  during  our  present  difficulties  and  distress,  no 
slaves  ought  to  be  imported  into  any  of  the  British 
Colonies  on  this  continent;  and  we  take  this  opportunity 
of  declaring  our  most  earnest  Welshes  to  see  an  entire 
stop  forever  put  to  such  a  wicked,  cruel,  and  unnatural 
trade." 

Coming  from  Yirginia,  the  mother  of  slavery  before 
she  was  the  mother  of  Presidents,  meant  a  great  deal; 


15 

but  the  feeling  of  concern  about  the  slave-trade  was 
not  confine.d  to  any  one  Colony;  all  of  them  took  action 
of  some  kind,  and  the  interest  was  deep  and  genuine. 
TheColonies  heard  the  low  reverberations  of  the  thunders 
of  war;  the  clouds  were  gathering;  they  wanted  to  get 
into  line  with  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  the  provinces, 
to  be  in  harmony  with  the  increasing  humanity  of  Eu- 
rope, to  break  the  favorite  hobby  of  the  Crown,  and  to 
secure  the  sympathy  of  the  slave  population  at  home. 

On  the  29th  of  May,  1775,  the  Committee  of  Safety 
for  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  discussed  the  ques- 
tion of  the  military  employment  of  ^N'egroes.  The 
question  again  made  its  appearance  in  the  deliberations 
of  this  committee  on  the  6th  of  June,  and  once  more  on 
the  10th  of  July.  On  the  29th  of  September,  1775,  the 
Negro  question  was  warmly  discussed  in  the  Continental 
Congress,  and  on  the  8th  of  October  it  entered  the  mil- 
itary conference  at  Cambridge.  On  the  18th  and  23d 
of  October,  1775,  it  was  discussed,  and  on  the  12th  of 
N'ovember,  1775,  Gen.  George  Washington  made  it  the 
subject  of  a  general  order.  On  the  30th  of  December, 
Gen.  "Washington  again  made  it  the  subject  of  another 
general  order,  and  on  the  next  day,  31st  December, 
wrote  the  President  of  the  Continental  Congress; 
and  on  the  16th  of  January,  1776,  l^egroes  were 
admitted  to  serve  as  soldiers  in  the  Continental  Army. 

THE   MINISTEKIAL    ARMY 

craved  the  services  of  the  Kegro,  and  its  leaders  were 
not  idle.     On  the  16th  of  November,  1775,  Lord  Dun- 


16 

more  issued  a  proclamation,  offering  protection,  free- 
dom, the  British  uniform,  and  bounty  to  all  I^egroes 
who  should  join  his  standards;  and  for  a  time  this  proc- 
lamation had  a  disastrous  effect  upon  the  Negroes  of 
Virginia  in  particular,  and  upon  those  of  other  Colonies 
in  general.  The  struggle  to  secure  the  valuable  ser- 
vices of  the  Negro  went  on  until  after  the  procla- 
mation of  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  June  30,  1799.  This 
proclamation  appeared  again  in  the  Royal  Gazette  of 
I^ew  York,  on  the  3d  of  July,  but  the  !N'egro  had  cast 
his  lot  with  the  colonial  army.  He  heard  the  warning 
shots  at  Lexington,  and  the  victorious  guns  of  Ro- 
chambeau,  Lafayette,  and  Washington  at  Yorktown  ; 
and  when  the  war  was  over  he  heard  the  order  of 
"Washington  read  to  the  victorious  troops  that  the 
British  General,  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  in  evacuating  N'ew 
York,    was   "not    to    carry   away    Negroes  and  other 

THE    CONSTITUTION 

could  not  be  made  without  a  long,  bitter  discussion  on 
the  i^egro  question.  This  question  overshadowed  all 
others.  It  puzzled,  perplexed,  and  annoyed  the  conven- 
tion of  distinguished  gentlemen  who  had  met  to  make 
a  Constitution  for  the  new  government,  born  of  the 
struggle  between  despotism  and  liberty.  There  were 
generals  and  statesmen,  orators  and  authors,  philanthro- 
pists and  lawyers;  there  were  soldiers,  with  the  halo  of 
battle  still  upon  their  brows,  fresh  from  victorious  fields, 
where   they  had  witnessed   the  valor,  efficiency,  and 


17 

humanity  of  Negro  troops.  The  famous  declaration  of 
Jefferson,  "  that  all  men  were  created  equal,  that  they 
are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable 
rights;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness,"  had  become  the  shibboleth  of  all 
true  Americans.  Every  memory  and  incident  of  the 
glorious  Revolutionary  struggle,  every  garland  of  vic- 
tory, every  impulse  of  humanity,  the  dictum  of  reason, 
the  groans  and  tears  of  the  slaves,  and  the  voice  of  con- 
science cried  aloud  for  consistency  and  justice.  But  the 
South  wanted  unpaid  slaves,  and  the  North  wanted  free 
ships.  Slaves  and  ships  were  the  paramount  question. 
The  Southern  delegates  shrewdly  sought  to  restrict 
all  navigation  laws  to  a  two-thirds  vote,  and  by  relieving 
the  Southern  States  from  duties  on  exports,  and  upon 
the  importation  of  slaves,  New  England  had  to  take 
what  she  could  get.  By  denying  Congress  the  authority 
of  giving  preference  to  American  over  foreign  shipping, 
it  was  designed  to  secure  cheap  transportation  for 
Southern  exports;  but,  as  the  shipping  was  largely 
owned  in  the  Eastern  States,  their  delegates  were  zeal- 
ous in  their  efforts  to  prevent  any  restriction  of  the 
power  of  Congress  to  enact  navigation  laws.  The  pro- 
hibition of  duties  on  the  importation  of  slaves  was 
demanded  by  the  delegates  from  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia.  They  assured  the  convention  that  without 
such  a  provision  they  could  never  give  their  assent  to 
the  Constitution.  The  Northern  delegates  gave  their 
support  to  the  restriction,  and  the  Negro  became  a  fixed 
quality  in  this  great  political  equation. 


18 


WITH    SLAVERY    CONCEDED 

to  the  Southern  States,  maintainable  by  constitutional 
authority,  an  element  in  the  basil  condition  of  Congres- 
sional representation,  there  was  no  way  out  of  this  con- 
spiracy against  human  liberty.  Ichabod,  the  glory  had 
departed  from  the  Constitution.  It  had  conceived  sin 
and  was  to  bring  forth  death.  "What  would  be  the 
logic  of  this  constitutional  position?  Legislation  in 
harmony  with  constitutional  recognition  of  slavery. 
On  the  6th  of  April,  1789,  the  first  day  of  the  first  ses- 
sion of  the  first  Congress  under  the  present  Constitu- 
tion, the  Negro  question  made  its  appearance  in  the 
tarifi"  bill  presented  by  Mr.  Parker,  of  Virginia.  In 
every  session  of  Congress,  until  the  year  1800,  the 
ISTegro  question  appeared  in  one  form  or  another.  It 
could  not  be  said  to  have  subsided  for  any  considerable 
time. 

Pained  by  the  past,  expecting  ills  to  come. 
In  some  dread  moment  by  the  fates  assigned, 

the  Congress  knew  not  the  hour  or  character  in  which 
the  insoluble  question  might  come. 

THE    NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

opened  with  an  earnest  struggle  for  the  extinction  of 
the  slave-trade  to  the  coast  of  Guinea.  On  the  2d 
of  January,  1800,  a  committee  of  intelligent  citizens  of 
color,  from  Philadelphia,  presented  a  petition  to  Con- 
gress protesting  against  the  continuance  of  the  slave- 


19 

trade  on  the  seas.  It  was  presented  by  the  member 
from  the  county  of  Philadelphia,  and  provoked  imme- 
diate and  sharp  discussion.  The  tone  and  manner  of 
the  Southern  members  clearly  indicated  that  they  were 
committed  to  the  policy  of  non-interference  with  slavery 
on  the  part  of  the  l!^orthern  members. 

On  the  2d  of  April,  1802,  Georgia  ceded  the  territory 
lying  west  of  her  present  limits,  now  embracing  the 
States  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi.  By  the  ordinance 
of  1787,  passed  on  the  13th  of  July  that  same  year, 
slavery  was  excluded  from  the  western  territory.  In 
the  Georgia  articles  of  concession,  slavery  was  allowed; 
and  the  demand  of  Georgia  for  the  spread  of  the  evil 
was  acceded  to.  When  the  Territory  of  Indiana  de- 
sired to  be  formed  into  a  State  and  admitted  into  the 
Union,  an  attempt  was  made  to  repeal  the  ordinance  of 
1787.  Accordingly,  on  the  2d  of  March,  1803,  the 
select  committee,  to  whom  the  prayer  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Indiana  Territory  had  been  referred,  took  the  matter 
under  consideration.  It  dragged  its  lazy  lengths 
through  the  entire  session  of  this  Congress,  and 
slept  only  during  the  recess.  On  the  17th  of  February, 
1804,  it  was  again  under  discussion.  The  committee 
reported  that  the  sixth  article  of  the  ordinance  of  1787, 
excluding  slavery  from  the  western  territory,  should 
"  be  suspended  in  a  qualified  manner  for  ten  years." 
The  Congress  did  not  reach  the  matter,  but  the  friends 
of  slavery  did  not  lose  sight  of  it.  So  again,  in  the 
Congress  of  1805-G,  another  attempt  was  made  in  the 
interest  of  the   measure.     On  the  11th  of  February, 


20 

1806,  the  committee  having  the  memorial  in  charge 
made  a  favorable  report.  The  report  was  made  the 
special  order  for  a  day  certain,  but  was  crowded  out  by 
other  business.  ^Nothing  daunted.  Gen.  Harrison,  gov- 
ernor of  the  Indiana  Territory,  with  resolves  from  his 
territorial  legislature,  addressed  a  letter  urging  a  sus- 
pension of  the  ordinance  of  1787.  On  the  Hist  of  Janu- 
ary, 1807,  his  letter,  with  enclosures,  was  received,  and 
sent  to  a  special  committee.     On  the  12th  of  February, 

1807,  the  committee  made  a  favorable  report.  Again 
the  matter  was  made  the  special  order,  but  was  never 
called  up.  Two  other  attempts  were  made,  when  the 
matter  subsided. 

THE    SLAVE   POPULATION 

increased  thirty-three  per  cent  during  these  years  of  ex- 
citement, and  slavery  as  an  institution  was  sending  its 
dark  death-roots  into  the  organic  life  of  the  nation.  In 
1817,  Dec.  10,  Mississippi  applied  for  admission  into  the 
Union.  The  trial  of  slaves  by  grand  juries  was  dis- 
pensed with,  and  the  regulations  for  the  system  were 
exacting  and  cruel. 

OUE   NAVY 

policed  the  seaboard  for  several  years  to  prevent  the 
slave-trade  from  foreign  parts.  Congress  had  at- 
tempted to  make  the  old  fugitive  slave  law  more  effi-^ 
cient  by  amendment.  In  the  session  of  1817-18,  it 
passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of  eighty-four  to  sixty-nine. 
Amended  in  the  Senate,  it  passed  by  a  vote  of  seventeen 


21 

to  thirteen,  but  was  tabled  in  the  House.  Anti-slavery 
sentiment  began  to  take  shape,  and  many  stammering 
tongues  were  cut  loose.  Men  who  had  only  thought, 
now  began  to  speak  and  act.  But  the  activity  and  zeal 
were  not  all  on  one  side. 

In  the  month  of  March,  1818,  the  delegate  from  Mis- 
souri presented  a  petition  from  the  people  praying  to  be 
admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  State.  It  went  to  the  ap- 
propriate committee,  where  it  remained  till  the  next  ses- 
sion. Then  followed  a  fierce  and  prolonged  struggle. 
The  admission  of  Missouri  with  a  slave  Constitution, 
after  denying  the  prayer  of  Indiana,  was  a  bold  move. 
But  the  violation  of  the  sacred  ordinance  of  1787,  that 
aimed  to  preserve  the  western  territory  from  the  defiling 
touch  of  slavery,  was  nothing  less  than  a  gigantic  political 
crime. 

KESTRICTIOX   OR    EXTENSION 

of  slavery  was  now  the  battle-cry.  Missouri  was  the 
storm-line ;  and  the  political  sky  was  filled  with  porten- 
tous clouds.  The  struggle  between  the  friends  and 
enemies  of  slavery  was  long  and  bitter;  but  the  end 
came  at  last,  and  Mr.  Clay's  famous  compromise  was 
adopted.  The  Missouri  Legislature  made  a  solemn 
agreement  not  to  pass  any  act  "  by  which  any  other 
citizens  of  either  of  the  States  should  be  excluded  from 
the  enjoyment  of  the  privileges  and  immunities  to  which 
they  were  entitled  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States."  Thus  on  the  27th  of  February,  1821,  Missouri 
was  admitted  into  the  Union. 


22 


ANTI-SLAYERY   SENTIMENT 


began  to  be  felt;  local  societies  were  forming  through- 
out the  Northern  States,  and  anti-slavery  became  a  topic 
of  discussion  in  colleges  and  lyceuras.  All  this  work 
was  a  preparation  for  a  grand  organization.  The  lonely 
voice  of  Benjamin  Lundy  had  already  been  heard  as 
one  crying  in  the  wilderness.  He  had  organized  the 
press  and  platform  for  the  cause  of  the  slave;  had  en- 
listed woman  in  the  work,  and  had  put  his  worldly  for- 
tune upon  the  altar  of  the  righteous  cause. 

In  the  fulness  of  time  came  "William  Lloyd  Garrison. 
From  obscurity,  poverty,  down  from  the  wind-swept 
and  snow-capped  mountains  of  Yermont,  he  came  into 
the  great  moral  conflict.  He  threw  down  the  gage  of 
battle  at  the  feet  of  the  haughty  Goliath  of  slavery. 
He  organized  a  party;  he  founded  a  great  journal;  he 
converted  the  conservatism  of  'New  England;  he 
attacked  the  Constitution  and  the  pulpit,  and  brought 
not  "  peace,  but  a  sword."  His  clarion  call  to  battle 
startled  the  slave  power  from  its  security  ;  and  by  his 
iron  will,  steady  purpose,  and  unflagging  zeal  aroused 
the  country  as  no  one  man  had  ever  done  before. 

DIVERSIFIED    METHODS 

there  were,  but  all  of  them  aimed  at  the  common  enemy, 
led  to  the  same  end.  Anti-slavery  societies  multiplied. 
The  GanHsonian,  Heterodox,  Political  Abolition,  Eco- 
nomic, Aggressive,    Colonization,    Under-ground    and 


23 

Free  Soil  parties  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  the  slave.  The 
slave  power  was  correspondingly  industrious.  Southern 
legislatures  enacted  severer  laws,  and  subjected  their 
victims  to  a  most  rigorous  state  of  bondage.  Suspicion 
fell  with  merciless  fury  upon  every  Northern  person 
who  went  into  the  slave  States.  An  embargo  was  laid 
against  I^orthern  anti-slavery  publications  of  every 
description;  and  Southern  executive  and  legislative 
dignity  was  not  lowered  by  offering  rewards  for  anti- 
slavery  books  and  heads.  Books  were  written  from 
both  points  of  view ;  the  pew  became  as  deeply  con- 
cerned as  the  'change,  and  the  pulpit  began  to  imitate 
the  platform. 

THE    DEED    SCOTT    DECISION 

added  more  fuel  to  the  flame.  Then  the  Burns  rescue 
case,  the  struggle  in  Kansas,  and  last,  but  more  than 
all  else,  the  bold  stroke  of  grand  old  John  Brown  at 
Harper's  Ferry  carried  the  IS'egroes'  case  on  appeal  from 
the  court  of  reason  to  the  court  of  war. 

THE    SLAVERY   REBELLI0:N' 

was  begun  by  the  South  at  Charleston,  and  ended  by 
the  Korth  at  Appomattox.  You  know  the  story  of  the 
Negroes'  wrongs  and  trials  in  that  memorable  struggle. 
I  need  not  tell  you  how  he  was  first  counted  on  the 
outside,  hunted  down  by  Union  troops,  clubbed,  shot, 
and  burned  in  the  North;  first  given  a  spade,  then  in- 
trusted with  a  musket.  He  had  to  conquer  the  prejudice 
of  the  Union  army;  and  then,  upon  |7.00  a  month, — 


24 

half  pay,  —  defeat  the  skilled  soldiery  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy.  He  did  this,  and  more;  and  history,  not 
grudgingly  but  cheerfully,  records,  "  The  Colored 
TroojJS  fought  nobly. ^'' 

RECONSTRUCTION^ 

followed  the  destruction  wrought  by  the  great  military 
struggle.  Homeless  and  nameless,  penniless  and  friend- 
less, four  million  freedmen  stood  alone  under  the  open 
sky.  1^0  Egyptians  were  there  from  whom  to  borrow 
finger-rings  and  jewelry;  no  sandals,  no  staff  in  hand, 
no  wise  leadership,  no  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  fire 
by  night.  There  they  stood;  and  their  faith  in  God 
and  the  government  of  the  United  States  flickered 
through  the  dark  mists  of  uncertainty;  and  they  did 
not  faint.  Upon  this  inexperienced  people  grave  re- 
sponsibilities were  placed ;  and,  taking  all  their  disad- 
vantages under  consideration,  they  did  better  than  might 
have  been  expected.  We  will  not  subject  their  work 
to  a  critical  test,  but  after  twenty-two  years  of  freedom 
let  us  recount  the  progress  they  have  made. 

There  were  271,421  j^egroes  in  the  United  States 
army  during  the  war  for  the  Union,  and  they  partici- 
pated in  219  battles.  In  the  Freedmen's  Savings  Bank 
and  in  other  banks,  froiji  1866  to  1873,  the  Kegroes  of  the 
country  deposited  $53,000,000.  There  have  been  seven 
lieutenant-governors,  four  secretaries  of  state,  three 
State  auditors,  two  State  treasurers,  two  United  States 
senators,  fifteen  members  of  the  United  States  House 
of  Representatives,  one  register  of  the  United  States 


25 

treasury,  and  one  collector  of  taxes,  one  United  States 
marshal,  one  recorder  of  deeds  in  the  District  of 
Columbia;  nine  ISTegroes  have  served  in  the  diplomatic 
service,  and  there  are  at  present  620  in  the  departments 
at  Washington.  There  are  14,889  schools  for  Negroes, 
with  720,803  pupils  in  them.  This  was  the  result  in 
1880,  and  now,  in  1884,  we  may  safely  add  a  quarter 
of  a  million  more  pupils.  There  are  also  188  Colored 
students  in  the  junior  and  senior  classes  of  colleges  in 
the  Northern  States,  and  thousands  of  Colored  children 
in  the  common  schools  of  the  Korth. 

THE    CIVIL    EIGHTS 

of  the  Colored  people  have  been  overthrown  by  a  recent 
decision  of  theUnited  States  Supreme  Court,  followed  by 
a  disastrous  moral  eifect  at  the  South.  The  Civil  Rights 
Bill  was  the  crowning  act  in  the  life  of  our  devoted 
friend,  the  late  Charles  Sumner.  It  was  the  offspring 
of  a  rare  scholarship,  broad  statesmanship,  and  peerless 
philanthropy.  The  bill  was  subjected  to  the  severest 
scrutiny  and  criticism  by  its  friends  and  enemies;  and, 
after  passing  through  the  fires  of  debate,  it  became 
the  law  of  the  land.  After  remaining  in  force  for 
nearly  a  decade,  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  was 
called  to  pass  upon  its  constitutionality.  The  Court, 
with  but  one  noble  exception,  —  Justice  Harlan,  —  de- 
cided that  the  bill  was  unconstitutional.  In  the  Dred 
Scott  case,  Judge  Taney  gave  the  decision  of  the 
Court,  Justice  McLean  dissenting,  upon  the  ques- 
tion  of  the   citizenship   of  a  IS'egro  under   the  Con- 


26 

stitution.  He  admitted  that  the  words  negro,  slave, 
and  colored  person  did  not  appear  in  the  Consti- 
tution ;  but  maintained  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
Court  to  consider  the  intention  of  the  framers  of 
the  Constitution;  that  the  Yfoxdi person  was  intended  to 
be  construed  as  meaning  slave,  and,  that,  therefore, 
Dred  Scott  being  a  !N"egro,  was  not  a  citizen,  but  a 
slave.  If  Judge  Taney,  as  Chief  Justice,  under  a  Dem- 
ocratic administration,  could  interpret  the  Constitution 
liberally  in  the  interest  of  slavery,  it  ought  not  to  have 
been  a  difficult  matter  for  Judge  Waite,  Chief  Justice 
under  a  Republican  administration,  to  interpret  the  Con- 
stitution liberally  in  the  interest  of  freedom.  "We  had 
fought  four  years  and  one  half  to  destroy  slavery  ;  we 
had  made  500,000  graves  ;  we  had  mained  300,000  men; 
we  had  expended  |3,000,000,000  ;  we  had  emancipated 
4,500,000  human  beings.  In  the  light  of  these  facts  it 
was  clear  to  be  seen  that  civil  rights  were  but  the  inci- 
dents of  freedom,  and  followed  as  naturally  as  heat 
does  light  or  the  rising  of  the  sun.  A  liberal  interpre- 
tation of  this  law  would  have  been  in  line  and  in  har- 
mony with  the  great  civilization  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Kot  only  the  Supreme  Court,  but  political 
parties  have  turned  to  abstractions  rather  than  to  the 
great  questions  of  humanity.  Materialism  reigns  every- 
where. 

THE    negroes'    past 

political  action  was  the  irresistible  logic  of  gratitude. 
He  entered  the  ranks  of  his  political  friends.  He  voted 


27 

as  he  had  fought,  for  the  Union.  Any  other  poUtical 
action  would  have  earned  the  execrations  of  God  and 
man.  Moreover,  the  Negro's  ballot  was  as  indispen- 
sable to  the  successful  work  of  reconstruction  as  the 
N^egro's  bullet  was  to  the  successful  prosecution  of  the 
war.  The  ex-rebels  were  sullen  and  intractable  during 
the  entire  period  of  reconstruction.  Some  of  them  went 
off  to  Mexico,  Brazil,  England,  and  Egypt;  others  re- 
mained in  a  state  of  inertia  ;  while  a  very  small  minor- 
ity accepted  the  situation  like  men,  and  put  their  ener- 
gies into  the  work  of  reconstruction.  The  carpet-bagger, 
scallaiuag,  and  Negro  had  control  of  the  Southern 
States.  These  were  not  the  most  desirable  forces  to 
effect  so  great  a  work ;  but  they  were  to  be  preferred  to 
traitors.  The  failure  of  reconstruction  must  be  charged 
to  Congress,  and  to  the  educated  native  white  men  of 
the  South.  Congress  could  have  enacted  wiser  laws, 
and  the  white  men  of  the  South  could  have  secured 
better  government  there,  by  methods  of  prudence  and 
humanity. 

THE   POLITICAL    FIDELITY 

of  the  ]!*Tegro  is  the  marvel  of  all  political  history.  He 
stood  by  his  friends  through  evil  and  through  good 
report.  And  when  the  white  Republicans  had  been 
reduced  to  a  mere  corporal's  guard,  the  JS'egro  remained 
loyal  to  his  party.  In  fact  he  was  more  faithful  than  his 
friends.  For  his  fidelity  he  was  rewarded  by  being 
deserted  by  his  friends  and  by  being  shot  by  his  enemies. 
Thousands  upon  thousands  of  brave  black  Republicans 


28 

were  murdered  for  political  opinion's  sake;  and  political 
suffrage  in  the  South  has  had  a  name  to  live,  but  is 
dead. 

GEN.  GRANT 

owed  his  election  in  1868  and  in  1872  to  the  patriotic 
fidelity  of  the  Negro  voters  of  the  South.  And  when 
the  destiny  of  the  Republican  party  and  nation  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  Negro  members  of  the  returning  'boards 
of  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Florida,  in  1876,  it  was 
secure  beyond  all  temptation.  Rather  than  betray  their 
friends  those  ]J^egroes  chose  to  go  to  prison  on  bread  and 
water.  Several  fortunes  were  at  their  disposal  if  they 
would  only  consent  to  alter  the  returns,  but  they  indig- 
nantly declined  the  bribe.  They  could  neither  be  bought 
nor  bullied.  They  were  good  men  and  true.  And, 
opposite  their  fidelity,  a  bargain  was  consummated  be- 
tween their  friends  and  enemies  by  which,  when  the 
President  the  Kegroes  had  made  should  be  inaugurated^ 
the  three  doubtful  States  should  pass  to  the  control  of 
red-shirt  and  white-line  leagues.  The  conspiracy 
triumphed,  and  the  Negroes  who  saved  the  Republican 
party  in  1876  were  disfranchised,  and  are  exiles  in  this 
free  Republic  until  this  day. 

EUTHERFORD    B.    HAYES 

is  not  alone  to  blame  for  this  crime  against  truth,  virtue, 
and  fidelity.  The  Korthern  press,  and  a  one-eyed,  nar- 
row, prejudiced  public  sentiment  made  the  crime  possi- 
ble.   The  liberal  movement  of  1872  broke  the  confidence 


29 

of  the  ^orth  in  the  Southern  N'egro,  and  the  great 
financial  panic  of  1873  stifled  the  voice  of  compassion, 
and  palsied  the  helping  hand  that  was  extended  to  aid 
the  persecuted  blacks.  A  deaf  ear  was  turned  to  all 
stories  of  Southern  outi'age,  and  materialism  congealed 
the  feelings  of  humanity,  and  the  poor  Negro  went  down 
to  inhospitable  and  bloody  political  graves  before  the 
white-line  banners,  upon  which  was  inscribed  the 
motto,  "  We  must  carry  these  States :  j)6aceaUi/,  if  loe 
can;  forcibly,  if  we  must." 


JAMES   A.    GARFIELD 

owed  his  election  to  the  Presidency  to  the  o!ann;«hness 
of  the  Negro  vote  of  the  North.  The  Negro  vote  in  the 
following  Northern  States  in  1880  was  as  follows:  — 

Connecticut 11,547 

Illinois 4(3,368 

Indiana         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  39,228 

Kansas 43,107 

Massachusetts 18,697 

Michigan 15,100 

New  Jersey 65,104 

New  York 631,277 

Ohio 79,900 

Pennsylvania 85,535 

Total 935,843 


30 

"We  have  only  taken  the  Northern  States  where  the 
Colored  people  are  in  largest  numbers.  So  we  have 
nearly  one  million  of  them  in  ten  States.  We  have  at 
least  three  hundred  thousand  Negro  votes  in  these 
States.  Had  the  Negro  vote  of  Ohio  been  thrown  for 
Gen.  Hancock,  Garfield  would  have  lost  his  own  State; 
and  the  Negro  vote  of  Indiana  and  New  York  could 
have  given  Gen.  Hancock  an  overwhelming  majority 
in  the  Electoral  College.  The  loyal  Negro  elected  the 
last  President. 

A    SOLID    SOUTH 

is  a  fact.  It  will  stand  in  the  face  of  Northern  senti- 
ment and  refuse  to  be  broken.  The  next  Presidential 
candidate  of  the  Bepublican  party  must  carry  a 
solid  North,  or  suffer  defeat.  But  it  is  said  by 
some  that  the  Negro  question  is  settled;  that  the 
North  is  weary  of  it;  that  the  Negro  goes  from 
the  South  to  the  national  convention,  insists  upon 
the  nomination  of  a  candidate,  towards  whose  selection 
by  the  Electoral  College  he  can  contribute  no  aid; 
that  we  must  have  other  issues  than  the  Negro  ques- 
tion, —  tariff,  civil  service,  internal  improvements,  etc. 
If  this  be  true,  and  if  this  is  to  be  the  policy  of  the  Re- 
publican party,  the  Negro  says.  Amen !  If  civil-service 
reform  is  of  more  importance  than  human  liberty,  let 
the  party  abandon  the  Negro.  Then  what  has  the  party 
to  say  of  the  Negro's  abandonment  of  Pepublicanism? 
It  is  a  poor  rule  that  does  not  work  both  ways.  The 
Republican  party  voluntarily  assumed  the  task  of  eman- 


31 

cipating  the  'Negro ;  it  followed  up  this  great  and  good 
work  by  making  him  a  soldier,  a  citizen,  a  voter,  and 
an  office-holder.  Is  the  work  of  the  party  ended?  Is 
its  mission  completed?  Oh,  no.  fellow-citizens!  not 
until  the  humblest,  blackest  citizen  in  all  the  land  shall 
be  amply  protected  in  the  constitutional  exercise  of  the 
political  rights  conferred  upon  him  by  the  Constitution 
of  these  United  States !  To  stop  short  of  this  would 
be  cowardice;  to  close  its  otherwise  glorious  career 
without  making  free  citizenship  as  broad  as  the  conti- 
nent, would  be  to  go  down  to  history  as  an  inglorious 
failure.  The  Republican  party  cannot  afford  to  surren- 
der its  magnificent  history  and  splendid  possibilities  to 
the  shot-gun  policy  of  the  South.  It  cannot  afford  to 
say  to  civilized  Europe,  "  We  made  the  Negro  a  freeman 
and  a  citizen;  he  helped  us  win  glorious  victories  in  war 
and  in  politics,  but  now  we  cannot  defend  our  defend- 
ers ! " 

THE    I^ATION   POWEKLESS 

to  protect  its  citizens?  It  is  a  libel  upon  our  free 
government  to  offer  such  a  miserable  apology  for  its 
stolid  indifference  to  murder  and  arson.  Under  the 
internal  revenue  laws  the  government  requires  a  tax 
on  every  gallon  of  distilled  spirits.  If  any  manufac- 
turer refuses  to  pay  the  tax,  or  attempts  to  evade  the 
law,  he  is  taken  in  hand.  If  he  resists,  he  is  shot. 
^Nobody  complains,  and  the  government  goes  on.  A 
loyal  human  life  ought  to  be  equal  in  value  to  a 
gallon  of  whiskey !      The  men  who  formed  the  Con- 


32 

stitution  reserved  the  right  to  the  people  to  change 
it  whenever  their  interests  required  it.  The  creator 
is  greater  than  the  creature  ;  the  people  are  more 
important  than  the  Constitution  !  If  there  is  no 
power  in  the  Constitution  by  which  the  people  at  the 
South  can  be  protected,  then  let  the  Republican  party 
recast  the  Constitution ;  and  let  it  be  made  a  shield  of 
burnished  steel,  large  enough,  strong  enough,  to  protect 
every  citizen.  East  and  West,  ]S"orth  and  South,  black 
and  white.  Democrat  and  Republican,  from  the  golden 
shores  of  the  Pacific  to  the  pearly  coast  of  the  Atlantic. 
This  can  be  donej  this  must  be  done. 


PUBI>IC    SENTIMENT 

annoys  many  of  our  statesmen.  They  would  be  perfectly 
willing  to  do  more  for  the  ^egro  if  it  were  not  for 
pubhc  sentiment.  When  the  statesmen  in  Athens 
were  asked  why  they  desired  to  banish  Aristides, 
they  replied  that  they  were  weary  hearing  of  Aris- 
tides the  Just,  and  desired  to  get  rid  of  him. 
A  shell  was  handed  to  Aristides  in  the  streets  of 
Athens  by  a  citizen  who  did  not  know  him.  He 
was  asked  to  cast  his  vote  to  banish  Aristides.  He 
wrote  his  own  name  on  the  shell  without  asking  a  ques- 
tion, and  passed  on.  Is  the  Republican  party  weary 
hearing  about  the  Negro?  and  would  it  have  him  con- 
sent to  be  abandoned,  and  pass  on  as  a  poUtical  exile 
and  orphan?  The  party  must  speak  at  Chicago,  and 
the  Korth  must  answer  our  question  at  the  IS'ovember 


33 

ballot-box.  Do  we  ask  too  much?  Yerily  not.  All 
we  ask  is  that  party  platforms,  promises,  and  resolves 
may  be  translated  into  honest  action  and  hearty  fulfil- 
ment. We  ask  that  our  persons,  pj'operty,  families,  and 
lives  may  be  defended  from  assassins  and  bulldozers; 
that  our  labor  may  have  its  just  compensation;  that 
justice  may  not  tip  the  scales  in  favor  of  our  enemies; 
that  public  inns,  common-carrier  companies,  work- 
shops, and  schools  may  be  open  to  us,  as  they  are  to 
the  white  race ;  and  that  we  may  be  permitted  to  cast 
an  honest  ballot,  have  it  fairly  counted,  and  receive  a 
truthful  declaration  of  the  count.  Could  we  ask 
less?  "Would  the  country  have  us  ask  less?  By  our 
adherence  to  the  Republican  party  we  have  drawn  the 
fire  and  intensified  the  malice  of  our  enemies.  And 
now  if  we  cannot  be  protected  by  the  party  we  have 
served,  self-preservation,  the  first  law  of  nature, 
demands  us  to  save  ourselves  at  all  hazards.  For  this 
salvation  we  must  organize,  remembering  that  eternal 
vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty. 

EEVENGE 

has  been  suggested  by  some  madcaps.  God  forbid  I 
We  are  but  a  handful  in  this  country,  and  we  must  not 
destroy  our  reputation  for  gentleness.  The  Negro  has 
taught  the  world  the  gospel  of  forgiveness.  Seven  million 
Negroes  may  not  hope  to  strike  at  forty-three  million 
whites.  Copiah  and  Danville  first  sicken  the  heart; 
then  horrify,  then  madden  us.  They  will  be  thoroughly 
investigated.     Republican  orators  will  ring  the  changes 


34 

on  them  until  after  election,  and  the  government  will 
do  —  nothing,  simply  nothing, 

"  Not  mine  sedition's  trumpet  blast 

And  threatening  word ; 
I  read  the  lesson  of  the  past, 
That  firm  endurance  wins  at  last 

More  than  the  sword. 

"  0  clear-eyed  Faith  and  Patience,  thou 

So  calm  and  strong, 
Lend  strength  to  weakness ;  teach  us  how 
The  sleepless  eyes  of  God  look  through 

This  night  of  wrong." 


EMIGRATION 

has  virtue  in  the  judgment  of  some  of  our  discouraged 
and  gloomy  brethren.  This  is  an  error  of  judgment. 
America  is  the  theatre  of  the  JSTegro's  noblest  acts. 
The  graves  of  his  ancestry  are  here.  He  was  married 
and  was  given  in  marriage  here.  His  children  were  born 
here;  and,  while  undergoing  the  crucial  test  of  man- 
hood and  citizenship,  he  can  not  afford  to  withdraw. 

This  is  our  own,  our  native  land, 

and  under  American  institutions  we  are  to  demonstrate 
our  claims  to  manhood,  and  our  fitness  for  the  duties  of 
citizenship. 

THE    MORAL    PHASE 

of  the  Kegro  question  is  worthy  of  profound  study. 
"We  have  not  the  time  to  examine  the  ethics  of  the  anti- 


35 

slavery  movement,  but  venture  the  statement  that  the 
American  people  owe  much  of  their  moral  breadth  to 
the  Negro  question.  The  Negro  problem  was  the  other 
side  of  American  materialism.  The  leading  men  of 
the  last  century  obtained  their  greatness  in  the  struggle 
the  Colonies  passed  through.  The  constant  dwelling 
upon  the  questions  of  personal  rights  made  them  moral 
giants;  and  all  the  marked  men  of  the  present  century 
owe  their  greatness  to  the  Negro  problem.  It  was 
natural  that  a  young  nation  in  a  new  country  would  be 
given  over  to  materialism.  The  obstructions  across  the 
path  of  its  physical  advancement  were  numerous  and 
stubborn.  The  bread-winner  in  such  a  country  and 
nation  would  not  be  humane  as  a  rule.  Invironment 
is  a  profound  factor  in  the  problem  of  civilization. 
Constant  contact  with  the  rougher  phases  of  nature 
makes  men  correspondingly  rough.  The  humanity 
and  social  life  of  young  colonies  in  new  countries 
are  scarcely  ever  of  a  high  order.  But  some  injured 
right  of  humanity  crying  aloud  for  redress  keeps 
the  moral  senses  of  society  from  slumbering,  and  holds 
the  affections  in  healthful  tension.  Fortunate,  indeed, 
for  the  permanent  fame  of  the  American  nation,  that 
the  Negro  problem  has  been  ever  before  them.  The 
poor  Negro  saved  America  from  the  grossest  material- 
ism, and  furnished  the  condition  for  the  production  of 
her  ablest  men.  The  great  French  preacher,  Fenelon 
began  his  eulogy  over  the  body  of  the  dead  king  of 
France  by  exclaiming,  "  God  only  is  great !  "  And  there 
is,  certainly,  no  earthly  greatness  but  goodness.     The 


greatness  of  the  foremost  Americans  of  the  nineteenth 
century  was  distilled  through  the  tears  and  bloody 
sweat  of  the  ^egro  slave;  and  every  ray  of  lasting 
glory  that  rests  upon  the  brow  of  the  Republic  was 
born  in  the  deepest  vale  of  the  slave's  degradation. 
The  republic  of  letters  owes  the  Kegro  a  debt  of 
gratitude.  Poetry  and  prose,  history  and  biography, 
have  gleaned  in  this  field;  and  fiction,  approaching 
with  tardy  step,  will  yet  be  blessed  with  a  rich  store  of 
fact  and  fancy  unequalled  in  the  world's  history. 

If  there  had  been  no  'Negro  slavery  there  would 
have  been  no  anti-slavery  agitation  ;  and  having  no 
anti-slavery  agitation,  we  could  have  had  no  Lundy,  no 
Garrison,  no  Phillips,  no  Sumner,  no  Stevens,  no  Lin- 
coln. And  there  being  no  contest  between  slavery  and 
freedom,  there  would  have  been  no  rebellion  ;  and, 
hence,  Grant  and  Thomas,  Sheridan  and  McPherson, 
would  have  been  as  obscure  as  South  Sea  Islanders. 
The  fame  of  Lincoln  rests  upon  the  Emancipation  edict; 
the  fame  of  Sumner  rests  upon  his  two  great  speeches, 
The  Barbarism  of  Slavery^  The  Crime  against  Kan- 
sas, and  his  Civil  Rights  Bill.  The  only  Americans 
immortal  in  history  are  those  who  emptied  themselves 
for  humanity.  Other  men  have  striven  to  make  a  place 
in  history,  but  as  in  the  zoological  classification  of  ani- 
mals, so  they  will  find  their  proper  group.  By  their 
works  ye  shall  know  them. 


37 


THE    BLAIK    EDUCATIONAL    BILL 

is  the  grandest  measure  of  our  times.  It  is  broad,  com- 
prehensive, and  beneficent.  It  is  a  prophecy  of  better 
things  to  come ;  and  a  pledge  that  this  country  is  not  to 
be  Europeanized  or  turned  over  to  native  ignorance, 
and  the  nihilism  of  Russia,  the  communism  of  France, 
the  socialism  of  Germany.  What  we  want  is  more 
light  in  America.  The  electric  light  in  the  streets  of 
Washington  is  more  than  your  police  force.  Light  in 
this  country  is  more  than  our  army,  stretching  from 
Lake  Itasca  to  where  the  Mississippi  mingles  his  golden 
thread  in  the  deep  blue  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico;  more 
than  our  navy,  overshadowing  the  ocean. 


as  Gen.  James  B.  Gordon  puts  it,  must  aid  this  work. 
A  happy  solution  of  the  Negro  problem  can  be  speedily 
reached  if  the  white  people  of  the  South  will  take  an 
interest  in  this  question.  Three  things  must  be  done  by 
the  white  people  there,  viz.,  the  chain-gang  system 
should  be  abolished;  the  iniquitous,  cheating  planta- 
tion credit  system  should  be  abandoned;  and  every 
child,  white  and  black,  should  be  sent  to  school  for  at 
least  seven  months  in  every  year. 

The  Negro  is  thirsting  for  knowledge,  and  should  be 
gratified.  Some  years  before  the  war,  an  artist  of  Phila- 
delphia was  secured  by  the  State  of  South  Carolina  to 
paint  some  national    emblematic   picture  for  her  State 


38 

House.  Jefferson  Davis  was  invited  to  act  with  the 
South  Carolina  committee  at  "Washington,  in  criticising 
the  studies  of  this  work.  The  most  creditable  sketch 
presented  was  a  design  representing  the  North  by 
various  mechanical  implements;  the  West  by  a  prairie 
and  plough;  while  the  South  was  represented  by  various 
things,  the  centre-piece,  however,  being  a  cotton-bale 
with  a  I^egro  upon  it  fast  asleep.  When  Mr.  Davis 
saw  it,  he  said,  "Gentlemen,  this  will  never  do;  what 
will  become  of  the  South  when  the  Negro  wakes  up?" 

THE    SOUTHERN    REBELLION 

startled  the  Negro;  the  reconstruction  struggle  brought 
him  to  his  feet;  he  has  yawned,  and,  to-day,  with  open 
eyes,  he  is  manfully  looking  the  serious  questions  of 
life  squarely  in  the  face.  He  is  learning  the  practical 
lessons  of  life  with  ease  and  thoroughness;  and  all  he 
requires  is  kind  treatment  and  fair  dealing  from  the 
whites,  and  no  people  in  the  country  will  more  heartily 
rejoice  that  he  was  aroused  from  his  slumbers  than  the 
Southern  people  themselves. 

THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  CONGO, 

in  Africa,  is  attracting  intelligent  attention.  Every 
Negro  in  the  United  States  should  have  an  honest 
pride  in  the  African  question.  Africa  is  yet  going  to 
pay  this  nation  dollar  for  dollar  of  the  three  billions 
spent  in  prosecuting  the  war;  and  America  is  going  to 
compensate  Africa  for  stealing  her  children  by  placing 


39 

the  means  of  civilization  in  her  waiting  and  willing 
hands.  Thanks  to  his  Excellency  President  Arthur 
for  his  message  on  the  Congo,  and  loud  huzzas  for  the 
United  States  Senate  for  recognizing  the  International 
African  Association.  Africa  is  sure  to  be  the  scene  of 
the  world's  greatest  civilization.  She  will  be  quickened 
in  every  nerve  and  fibre  by  the  power  of  commerce; 
and  Christian  civilization  will  give  tone  to  her  sluggish 
moral  pulse.  Africa  will  be  regenerated;  tribes  will 
be  converted;  states  will  be  founded;  arts  and  letters 
will  flourish ;  peace  will  reign  in  her  mountains  and  smile 
in  her  valleys;  ships  and  cables,  journals  and  literature, 
science  and  discovery,  will  bind  her  to  the  civilized 
world  in  bonds  of  eternal  friendship. 


NEW   LEADERS 

for  the  ]S'egro  race  are  needed.  ^N'ot  the  time-servmg 
lickspittle,  not  the  self-seeking  parasite,  not  the  obse- 
quious, cringing  go-between,  not  swaggering  insolence 
or  skulking  cowardice  in  leadership,  nor  any  man  who 
is  either  ashamed  of  being,  or  mean  enough  to  deny  that 
he  is,  a  Negro.  We  want,  we  demand  leaders,  first  of 
all,  who  are  not  ashamed  of  the  race;  who  are  j)Ossessed 
of  brains,  character,  courage,  zeal,  and  tact.  We  want 
leaders  who  know  the  history  of  the  race's  trials,  strug- 
gles, and  achievements-;  and  who  can,  from  that  history, 
draw  inspiration  for  the  great  work  to  be  accomplished. 
We  demand  leaders  who  are  the  friends  of  mechanical 
education  for  the  rising  young  men;  and  who  are  pledged 


40 

to  a  system  of  thorough  education  for  our  young  women. 
"We  demand  leaders  who  will  neither  touch,  taste,  nor 
handle,  nor  put  to  their  neighbors'  lips,  in  private  or 
public,  at  home  or  abroad,  on  land  or  sea,  the  accursed 
cup  of  drink.  Men  they  must  be  of  noble  instincts  and 
generous  impulses;  who  have  a  genius  for  hard,  self- 
sacrificing  labor  to  build  up  the  race.  Such  leaders  will 
have  the  skill  to  detect  the  condition  of  our  people,  and 
the  genius  and  heroism  to  lead  the  way  to  the  heart  of 
the  race's  moral  need.  God  grant  that  such  men  may 
be  forthcoming. 

MORAL    EMANCIPATION 

is  what  we  most  need  now.  Many  salutary  lessons  are 
taught  us  by  the  bitter  past.  Let  us  lay  them  to 
heart,  and,  taking  fresh  courage,  turn  to  the  great 
work  that  awaits  us  on  every  hand.  All  that  remains 
of  this  tempestuous  state  of  things  is  but  the  rocking  of 
a  troubled  sea  to  rest.  For  He  whose  chariot  the  winds 
are,  and  the  clouds,  the  dust  that  waits  upon  His  sultry 
march  shall  visit  us  in  mercy;  shall  descend  propitious 
in  His  chariot,  paved  with  love. 


This  book  is  due  at  the  WALTER  R.  DAVIS  LIBRARY  on 
the  last  date  stamped  under  "Date  Due."  If  not  on  hold  it 
may  be  renewed  by  bringing  it  to  the  library. 


DATE 
DUE 

RET. 

DATE 
DUE 

RET. 

3 

f^- 

t       tv 

■^''- 

"r,!', 

5*94 

i 

UNIYERSITY  OF  N  C  AT  CHAPEL 


